Neanderthal? |
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Neanderthals Conservation status: Prehistoric |
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 H. neanderthalensis La Ferrassie 1 |
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| Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 |
The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, during the Middle and Lower Paleolithic period of the Pleistocene epoch.
Neanderthals were adapted to the cold, as shown by their large braincases, short but robust builds, and large noses — traits selected by nature in cold climates, as observed in modern sub-arctic populations. Their brains were roughly ten percent larger than those of modern humans. On average, Neanderthals stood about 1.65m tall (just under 5' 6") and were muscular.
Their characteristic style of stone tools is called the Mousterian Culture, after a prominent archaeological site where the tools were first found.
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Discovery
A Neanderthal skull was first discovered in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar in 1848, eight years prior to the "original" discovery in a limstone quarry of the Neander Valley (near Düsseldorf) in August, 1856, and three years before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published.
The type specimen, dubbed Neanderthal 1, consisted of a skull cap, two femora, three bones from the right arm, two from the left arm, part of the left ilium, fragments of a scapula, and ribs. The workers who recovered this material originally thought it to be the remains of a bear. They gave the material to amateur naturalist Johann Karl Fuhlrott, who turned the fossils over to anatomist Hermann Schaafhausen. The discovery was jointly announced in 1857.
That discovery is now considered the beginning of paleoanthropology. These and other discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from ancient Europeans who had played an important role in modern human origins. The remains of over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.
Name and classification
The term "Neanderthal Man" was coined in 1863 by Irish anatomist William King. Neanderthal is now spelled two ways: The spelling of the German word Thal, meaning "valley or dale", was changed to Tal in the early 20th century, but the former spelling is often retained in English and always in scientific names, while the modern spelling is used in German. The Neanderthal or "Neander valley" was named after theologian Joachim Neander, who lived there in the late eighteenth century.
The original German pronunciation (regardless of spelling) is with the sound /t/, rather than the sound /θ/ which is typical of the digraph th in English. When used in English, the term may get an anglicised /θ/ or an original /t/, depending on the speaker.
For many years, professionals vigorously debated about whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens. However, recent evidence from mitochondrial DNA studies have been interpreted as evidence that Neanderthals were not a subspecies of Homo sapiens. Still, some scientists argue that fossil evidence suggests that the two species interbred, and hence were the same biological species.
It is generally accepted that both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens evolved from earlier "archaic" Homo sapiens, but the classification of Neanderthals depends on when in time these modern humans are considered a separate species from the "archaic" forms. This complication is introduced because the "archaic" forms are a chronospecies.
Physical traits
The following is a list of physical traits that distinguish Neanderthals from modern humans; however, not all of them can be used to distinguish specific Neanderthal populations, from various geographic areas or periods of evolution, from other extinct humans. Also, many of these traits occasionally manifest in modern humans, particularly among certain ethnic groups. Nothing is known about the skin color, the hair, or the shape of soft parts such as eyes, ears, and lips of Neanderthals.
Compared to modern humans, Neanderthals were larger in size and had distinct morphological features, especially of the cranium, which gradually accumulated more derived aspects, particularly in certain relatively isolated geographic regions. Their relatively robust stature is thought to be an adaptation to the cold climate of Europe during the Pleistocene epoch.
- Cranial
- Suprainiac fossa, a groove above the inion
- Occipital bun, a protuberance of the occipital bone that looks like a hair knot
- Projecting mid-face
- Globe-shaped skull (from rear)
- Low, flat, elongated skull
- Supraorbital torus, a prominent browridge
- 1200-1700 cm³ skull capacity (slightly greater than modern humans)
- No chin
- Crest on the mastoid process behind the ear opening
- No groove on canine teeth
- A space behind the last molars
- A broad, projecting nose
- Bony projections on the sides of the nasal opening
- Different shape of the bony labyrinth in the ear
- Post-Cranial
- Considerably more muscular
- Large round finger tips
- Barrel-shaped rib cage
- Different shape of the pelvis
- Large kneecaps
- Long collar bones
- Short, bowed shoulder blades
- Thick, bowed shaft of the thigh bones
- Short shinbones and calf bones
It is also likely that Neanderthals exhibited a fair amount of rufosity, and that many red-headed and freckled humans today share some heritage with Neanderthals. 1
Language
The theory that Neanderthals lacked complex language was widespread until 1983, when a Neanderthal hyoid bone was found at the Kebara Cave in Israel. The bone that was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans. The hyoid is a small bone that holds the root of the tongue in place, a requirement to human speech and, therefore, its presence seems to imply some ability to speak.
Many people believe that even without the hyoid bone evidence, it is obvious that tools as advanced as those of the Mousterian Era, attributed to Neanderthals, could not have been developed without cognitive skills encompassing some form of spoken language.
A recent study conducted on the Neanderthal hyoid found that due to the physical characteristics of Neanderthals and the fact that their larynx would have been stouter than that of modern man, the average note emitted by Neanderthals would have been high pitched and sharper than that of modern man, contrary to the media stereotype of Neanderthals having ape-like grunts.
The base of the Neanderthal tongue was positioned higher in the throat, crowding the mouth somewhat. As a result, Neanderthal speech would most likely have been slow-paced and nasalized.
Tools
Neanderthal (Middle Paleolithic) archeological sites show both a smaller and a less flexible toolkit than in the Upper Paleolithic sites, occupied by modern humans that replaced them.
There is little evidence that Neanderthals used antlers, shell, or other bone materials to make tools: their bone industry was relatively simple. However, there is good evidence that they routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. The Neanderthal (Mousterian) tool case consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and spears. Many of these tools were very sharp.
Also, while they had weapons, none have as yet been found that were used as projectile weapons. They had spears in the sense of a long wooden shaft with an arrow head firmly attached to it, but these were not spears specifically crafted for flight. However, a number of 400,000 year old wooden projectile spears were found at Schöningen in northern Germany. These are thought to have been made by the Neanderthal's ancestors, Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. Generally, projectile weapons are more commonly associated with Homo sapiens.
Although much has been made of the Neanderthal's burial of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. The interpretation of the Shanidar IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of ritual burial (Ralph Solecki 1975), has been questioned (Sommer 1999). In some cases Neanderthal burials include grave goods such as bison and aurochs bones, tools, and the pigment ochre.
Neanderthals performed a sophisticated set of tasks normally associated with humans alone. For example, they constructed complex shelters, controlled fire, and skinned animals. Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with four holes in the diatonic scale deliberately bored into it. This flute was found in western Slovenia in 1995 near a Mousterian Era fireplace used by Neanderthals, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. See: prehistoric music.
Key dates
- 1848: Skull of ancient human found in Forbe's Quarry, Gibraltar. Its significance is not realised at the time.
- 1856: Johann Karl Fuhlrott first recognizes the fossil called “Neanderthal man.”
- 1880: The lower jaw or mandible of a Neanderthal child was found in a secure context, associated with cultural debris, including hearths, Mousterian tools, and bones of extinct animals.
- 1899: Hundreds of Neanderthal bones were described in stratigraphic position in association with cultural remains and extinct animal bones.
- 1908: A nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton in association with Mousterian tools and bones of extinct tools discovered.
- 1953-1957: Shanidar Cave, Northern Iraq: Ralph Solecki uncovers nine Neanderthal skeletons.
- 1975: Erik Trinkaus’s study of Neanderthal feet confirms they walked like modern humans.
- 1987: New thermoluminescence dates in the Levant place Neanderthal levels at Kebara at ca. 60,000 BP and modern humans at Qafzeh to 90,000 BP. These dates are confirmed by ESR dates for Qafzeh (90,000 BP) and Skhul (80,000 BP).
- 1991: New Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dates for Near Eastern remains show Tabun Neanderthal to be contemporaneous with modern humans from Skhul and Qafzeh.
- 2000: Igor Ovchinnikov, Kirsten Liden, William Goodman, et al. retrieve DNA from a late (29,000 BP) Neanderthal infant from Mezmaikaya Cave in the Caucausus.
- 2005: The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology launches a project to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome.
Popular culture
Popular Literature has tended to greatly exaggerate the apeike gait and related characteristics of the Neanderthals. It has been determined that some of the earliest specimens found in fact suffered from severe arthritis. The Neanderthals were fully bipedal and had a slightly larger average brain capacity than a typical modern human, though it is thought the brain structure was organised differently.
In popular idiom the word Neanderthal is sometimes used as an insult, to suggest that a person combines a deficiency of intelligence and an attachment to brute force, as well as perhaps implying the person is old fashioned or attached to outdated ideas, much in the same way as "dinosaur" is also used. Counterbalancing this are sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals, as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding and Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series, or the more serious treatment by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén, in several works including Dance of the Tiger, and British psychologist Stan Gooch in his hybrid-origin theory of man.
Science fiction has depicted Neanderthals in several ways:
- In The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, a Neanderthal child is brought into the present via time travel.
- Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead places a small Neanderthal population in Europe as the source of the battles recorded in Beowulf.
- In the Riverworld series, Philip José Farmer introduces a prominent Neanderthal character named Kazz, who interacts with modern humans. Jose Farmer's novella The Alley Man concerns a Neanderthal whose family has survived into modern times.
- Robert Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy portrays contact with an alternate world where Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens, became the dominant species. The first book in this series, Hominids, won the Hugo Award in 2003. (Sawyer's 1997 novel Frameshift used Neanderthal DNA as an element of a plot set in modern-day America.)
- In John Darnton's 1996 novel Neanderthal a group of surviving Neanderthals is discovered in the mountains of Afghanistan. In the novel Neanderthals are said to possess the ability to read minds due to their larger cranial capacity.
- In the 1989 Doctor Who serial Ghost Light a Neanderthal named Nimrod is a butler. He shows good intelligence throughout the serial.
- Neanderthals are portrayed as having been brought back from extinction to fill low paying jobs in Jasper Fforde's novel Lost in a Good Book, as well as later novels in the series.
- Hindu Epic Ramayana mentions human-like Apes and Bears resembling Neanderthals.
- A character in Sergio Bonelli's comic book, "Martin Mystère", is a Neanderthal called Java. He is a part of the last surviving Neanderthal population, living in a hidden city in Mongolia.
See also
- Caveman
- Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, discoverer of Krapina Neanderthal
- Erik Trinkaus
- Bob_Fink
- Human evolution
- List of neanderthal sites
- Milford H. Wolpoff
- Neandertal interaction with Cro-Magnons
- Nephilim
- Physical anthropology
External links
- BBC.co.uk - 'Neanderthals "mated with modern humans"', British Broadcasting Company (April 21, 1999)
- BBC.co.uk - 'Neanderthals had hand like ours', Helen Briggs, BBC (March 27, 2003)
- GeoCities.com - 'The Neanderthal Sites at Veldwezelt-Hezerwater, Belgium'
- IFI.unizh.ch - 'Comparing Neanderthals and modern humans' (cranio-facial reconstructions)
- Neanderthal Cyber prespective IndState.edu - 'Neandertals: A Cyber Perspective', Kharlena María
Ramanan
- Krapina.com - 'Krapina: The World's Largest Neanderthal Finding Site'
- Neanderthal Flute -- oldest known musical instrument matches 4 notes of do-re-mi scale. Was it made by carnivores, or is it an artifact?
- Neanderthal.de - 'Neandertal Museum'
- RDOS.net 'Neanderthal theory'
References
- C. David Kreger 6/30/00 Homo Neanderthalensis retrieved 12/26/2004
- Dennis O'Neil 12/6/04 Evolution of Modern Humans Neandertals retrieved 12/26/2004
- Fink, Bob (1997) The Neanderthal Flutew/. (Greenwich, Canada) ISBN 0912424125
- Hickmann, Kilmer, Eichmann (ed.) (2003) http://www.greenwych.ca/studies.htm Studies in Music Archaeology III International Study Group on Music Archaeology's 2000 symposium. ISBN 3896466402
- Solecki, R. S. (1975) Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in N. Iraq Science 190 (28) 880
- Sommer, J.D. (1999) The Shanidar IV 'Flower Burial': A Reevaluation of Neanderthal Burial Ritual, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 9 127-129.
- Eva M. Wild, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Walter Kutschera, Peter Steier, Erik Trinkaus & Wolfgang Wanek (19 May 2005) Direct dating of Early Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Mladeč, Nature 435:332–335. link for Nature subscribers